Are we so spoiled that when i'm shopping for a simple phone that since it doesn't have network select I'm getting all pissy?? I live in mexico but can still get 4 bars with cingular (i'm really close to the border) and sometimes it's nice to switch back to cingular when i loose the signal fora sec and go roaming. Is there any other regular phones that can do this??? this is so gay, why wouldn't we be able to select network?

Well, the problem is that all phones CAN do manual network select or should at least. However CINGULAR's SIM has the instruction that tells the phone that it must hide the feature. Put just about any other SIM in the same phone(s) (assuming it was unlocked) and it would show network select. So be pissy about Cing, not the phone companies.

So what's the question? You're looking for a non-Treo that you can get network select with a Cingular SIM? Your only option is to hack the phone.
As I think you know there is a very simply patch for the Treo 650 (see my signature.)
Most Motorola phones can be modified to unlock manual network selection, especially the V series (V500, etc.) Head over to howardforums.com and start searching for which phones can be hacked and how.

I empathise with your rant, I'm right there with you. One of my fears is that I'll have to replace my Treo 650 some day with something that can't be or isn't easily hacked to re-enable manual net select. But could you specify your question?
-T

Well... the thing is, i'm looking for a nextel phone for my wife, but we're so close to the border, that if it goes roaming, i can't get it back to sprint/nextel cause there's no select network option. That's what i was getting at.

I have the select network hack for the 600 for my cingular sim card. So yeah, i guess the Q was what phones, (spring/nextel cdma) can be hacked. They're almost all "I" series motorolas.